# How unique are $U$ and $V$ in the Singular Value Decomposition?

According to Wikipedia:

A common convention is to list the singular values in descending order. In this case, the diagonal matrix $$\Sigma$$ is uniquely determined by $$M$$ (though the matrices $$U$$ and $$V$$ are not).

My question is, are $$U$$ and $$V$$ uniquely determined up to some equivalence relation (and what equivalence relation)?

Let $A = U_1 \Sigma V_1^* = U_2 \Sigma V_2^*$. Let us assume that $\Sigma$ has distinct diagonal elements and that $A$ is tall. Then

$$A^* A = V_1 \Sigma^* \Sigma V_1^* = V_2 \Sigma^* \Sigma V_2^*.$$

From this, we get

$$\Sigma^* \Sigma V_1^* V_2 = V_1^* V_2 \Sigma^* \Sigma.$$

Notice that $\Sigma^* \Sigma$ is diagonal with all different diagonal elements (that’s why we needed $A$ to be tall) and $V_1^* V_2$ is unitary. Defining $V := V_1^* V_2$ and $D := \Sigma^* \Sigma$, we have

$$D V = V D.$$

Now, since $V$ and $D$ commute, they have the same eigenvectors. But, $D$ is a diagonal matrix with distinct diagonal elements (i.e., distinct eigenvalues), so it’s eigenvectors are the elements of the canon basis. That means that $V$ is diagonal too, which means that

$$V = \operatorname{diag}(e^{{\rm i}\varphi_1}, e^{{\rm i}\varphi_2}, \dots, e^{{\rm i}\varphi_n}),$$

for some $\varphi_i$, $i=1,\dots,n$.

In other words, $V_2 = V_1 V$. Plug that back in the formula for $A$ and you get

$$A = U_1 \Sigma V_1^* = U_2 \Sigma V_2^* = U_2 \Sigma V^* V_1^* = U_2 V^* \Sigma V_1^*.$$

So, $U_2 = U_1 V$ if $\Sigma$ (and, in extension, $A$) is square nonsingular. Other options, somewhat similar to this, are possible if $\Sigma$ has zeroes on the diagonal and/or is rectangular.

If $\Sigma$ has repeating diagonal elements, much more can be done to change $U$ and $V$ (for example, one or both can permute corresponding columns).

If $A$ is not thin, but wide, you can do the same thing by starting with $AA^*$.

So, to answer your question: for a square, nonsingular $A$, there is a nice relation between different pairs of $U$ and $V$ (multiplication by a unitary diagonal matrix, applied in the same way to the both of them). Otherwise, you get quite a bit more freedom, which I believe is hard to formalize.